MINCAVA News Online
To read this publication online, go to: http://www.mincava.umn.edu/newsletter/Spring2011.html
The Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (www.mincava.umn.edu), under the direction of Jeffrey L. Edleson, Ph.D., works to increase knowledge on violence against women and children through research, education and free access to high-quality information.
MINCAVA staff have been creating and updating new online and print materials related to violence against women and children. Here are some recent developments from the center:
MINCAVA has recently entered the world of social networking and with over 100 followers we are beginning to fancy ourselves quite the Tweeters! Follow us on Twitter for updates on what's happening at MINCAVA including research and project updates, alerts to new content and events on the MINCAVA Electronic Clearinghouse, and violence prevention resources.
Jeffrey Edleson, Ericka Kimball and Hoa Nguyen are developing an online learning module about impacts of domestic violence (DV) on children from the children’s perspectives for DV shelters’ staff, DV practitioners and advocates. The online module is in the form of a child’s diary that includes drawings, diary entries and audio testimony by adult survivors of exposure as well as recently exposed children. A two-day round table discussion with adult survivors, key child advocates was convened to develop recommendations for best and promising practice with children exposed to domestic violence and suggestions for the online learning module.
The Hague Domestic Violence Project, a collaboration between the Universities of Minnesota and Washington, recently completed a four year, National Institute of Justice funded study of battered mothers who had taken their children from other countries and then faced legal actions in US courts to return their child to their abusive husbands under the Hague Convention on international child abduction. Read the full report and Executive Summary online at http://www.haguedv.org. Several multi-media presentations are also available on the website for free viewing. These include a presentation by the research team at the National Institute of Justice as well as a two hour dramatic re-enactment of mothers' stories by the Guthrie Theater accompanied with social science and legal commentary. Both are free online and may be accessed through our project website.
The Global Research Program on Mobilizing Men for Violence Prevention (MMVP) is currently working on several different projects…
Last Spring, we finished up a global survey of individuals and programs that work to engage men in preventing violence against women. The data is currently being analyzed and a full report will soon be posted to the MMVP website,www.mincava.umn.edu/mmvp.
Recently, we completed 27 interviews of survey participants representing more that 20 countries. Interview questions probed for a deeper understanding of how these organizations 1) define violence prevention; 2) conceptualize men’s “engagement” and 3) know they have made an impact in engaging men in violence prevention. Data analysis on this project will conclude with dissemination by the end of the year. We acknowledge all the participants of both studies, and especially appreciate participation of organization’s representatives who participated in the interviews.
MMVP research team, which includes Professor Rich Tolman and PhD student Tova Neugut at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and Assistant Professor Erin Casey at the University of Washington School of Social Work, will present their joint work at the American Men’s Studies Association national conference in Kansas City, MO in April.
We have also started a new project with First Time Fathers to identify gaps in engaging new fathers during the pregnancy period to reduce child exposure to domestic violence. We are currently interviewing practitioners who work with new and expectant parents about their work process. Soon we will hold focus groups and individual interviews with fathers to discuss their experience during the pregnancy period and also identify their supports and needs during this time. We hope to have a completed report in the Fall of 2011.
VAWnet (http://vawnet.org/) is an online resource for advocates working to end domestic violence, sexual assault, and other violence in the lives of women and their children. MINCAVA staff facilitate the VAWnet Domestic Violence Applied Research project. This research forum develops a series of concise documents on current research topics. We recently completed the following applied research document:
Economic Empowerment of Domestic Violence Survivors by Judy L. Postmus in consultation with Rene Renick, Sandra Mayoral Pedroarias, and Kim Pentico (October 2010) - This Applied Research paper reviews and critiques the existing literature on economic abuse experienced by domestic violence survivors and selected economic empowerment programs designed to address such abuse and its aftermath.
We are currently working on developing ten new applied research documents and two special collections. Most of these new documents and special collections will be published before September, 2011.
Violence Against Women Online Resources (VAWOR) is a collaborative project between MINCAVA and the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice.
VAWOR is currently developing a series of very brief research, policy, or best practice documents on violence against women. We work with national research and practice experts to develop short documents that provide concise information on new research, best practices, emerging policies and other issues of interest to policymakers and practitioners nationwide. We are currently working on the development of 18 different briefs regarding several aspects of violence against women. The topics range from sexual violence in later life to the use of technology in teen dating violence. We are always interested in new topics for the in-brief series, so please email vawor@umn.edu with any suggestions!
We are also continuing our Rapid Response project. This project works to respond to requests from OVW for talking points, research, and information on a myriad of issues related to violence against women. We guarantee the requested information within 48 hours. MINCAVA works with a growing list of experts, researchers, and practitioners who are willing to aid us in both Rapid Response requests as well as the document development project. We currently have 300 active experts in our database. We are constantly looking for new experts to add so please feel free to email any suggestions.
Also, please check out the VAWOR Online Library (http://vaw.umn.edu/) which has a total of 226 resource documents such as training curricula, research articles, and best practices guidelines.
